


Dreams of a Wanderer

by nikantros



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Death, Friends to Lovers, Loneliness, M/M, Melancholy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 21:19:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14941583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikantros/pseuds/nikantros
Summary: The Paladins return to Earth. Shiro is left to think.





	Dreams of a Wanderer

Shiro awakes to the low rumbling of the black lion and the light shine of the stars fleeing past. He feels that he is in soft hands, softly stroking his hair. He wants to open his eyes. _You need to open your eyes_ , a distant voice tells him from a different time. Shush now, he thinks, that’s in the past now. Rest, Allura has told him, and so he does, his body is so heavy, so very heavy. Strange how tiring being alive is he thinks as he drifts back into a dreamless slumber. 

The second time he wakes he can hear quiet voices. Keith’s mother, he realizes, and that blond Altean. They must have laid a blanket on him as well a giving him a pillow from God knows where, because he feels rather warm and soft. When he opens his eyes the blond girl smiles at him. „We’re soon to arrive," she says. „If you look closely out of the window you can already see your planet Keith has pointed out to me.“ He is almost home and is yet only left to listen to the quiet whispers of the black lion. She is excited to see him living and all he can thinks is thank you, thank you, thank you.

When they land on earth Sam has made sure that they get a much nicer greeting by the Galaxy Garrison than Shiro had gotten the last time. It seems so far away now, that night when he had landed on earth, scared and barely remembering anything. He remembers everything now. Maybe that’s a thing about dying, you remember stuff. He did not have the time to remember and take a break back than. In some way that had been a blessing he thinks as Hunk, Pidge and Lance say good-bye to visit their family. Even Keith goes of with Krolia to visit the old shack in the desert. So Shiro is left with Allura and Romelle who seem absolutely stunned by earth. Once he explains them the way to the small town near the Garrison they are excited to explore it. Yet when they invite Shiro to come with them he declines. He does not feel like going out. He does not feel like much anything.

When he died he did not first know where he was. He remembers screaming into the void. Hey, is there anyone. Please answer. Please. He remembers death as a black empty void. He was part of that void. Existing in the form of shadow instead of in the form of matter. It took days, weeks, years until he noticed the lights. Purple and blue, glowing in the distance. And the whispers of the lion. I’m here, she said. I’m here. 

He feels like visiting his grand-fathers grave. But that means going to Japan he knows, so he stays. He needs something to do, but when the Garrison offers him a class to teach piloting he only takes one look at the students and immediately think of a boy lost in space far from home. In the end he takes a job at a construction side. He enjoys the difficult work, how it forces him to concentrate on the task alone and nothing else. They pay him under the table, but it is not like it is the most dangerous thing Shiro has ever done. Keith gives him a ride after work more often than not. Shiro sleeps at his house now. It seemed like the easiest solution and it is not like they both need anything fancy to survive. 

„They are almost finished with rebuilding the castle," Keith announces one night. „Allura’s magic really helps them getting the work done in no time.“ „Good," Shiro answers. Once the castle is built Voltron can take off again. Shiro feels like a fish out of the water on earth. He has nowhere to go but ascend towards the sky. Keith stays quiet for some time, then he asks cautiously, „Do you remember anything from his perspective, I mean the clones?“ Shiro remembers watching his team from a curtain divided by time and space. „Some,“ he answers and Keith nods and blushes. 

When Shiro stumbles outside the next morning he finds Keith sitting on the porch, blinking into the cold morning light. „I guess it is weird," Keith finally starts, „ that I thought you were you and then you weren’t.“ A quick laugh bubbles up from his throat. It is too breathy as that it may sound true. „I guess I did some things that I should not have, but God knows some things cannot be helped.“

That night Keith comes to Shiro’s room. He stands right next to his bed and Shiro looks up to the man Keith has become. How long has it been since he had recruited Keith into the Garrison? Nothing seems left of the young orphan with his too big Hoodie and deep frown. Nothing but his big eyes. Keith finally sits down next to him. He is silent. They understand each other without words. Shiro had once thought that he is the one constant in Keith’s life, but it is actually the other way around. Keith is his constant. He found Shiro and brought him home to him. „Yes,“ Shiro permits and lifts his blanket. Keith crawls in and lays down next to him. He pulls Shiro into an embrace and strokes his hair slowly. Shiro lets him until he feels this need to get closer pull over. He turns around and kisses Keith. He responds, deep, desperate, as if he has waited his whole life for this moment. His hands move done Shiro’s back until they find his briefs and pull them down. And when Keith takes Shiro into his hand, his whole world comes to a halt. 

They leave earth three days later and as Shiro watches Earth disappear he is surprised that he finds himself being relieved. Maybe all of what had happened to him was meant to be. It is a part of him now, more than anything of his life before. The abduction by the Galra, the arena, Haggar, Voltron, his death, everything. It set the needle of his inner compass towards the sky.


End file.
